Schalke chip away at coalface to find renewed energy against Bayern

A new season habitually brings a new kit, new players, maybe even an improvement to the tea in the stadium kiosks, but a new tunnel? The Veltins Arena has held little fear for Bayern Munich in recent years but perhaps Schalke’s kitting-out of the walkway to the pitch with a fake coalface was supposed to give Pep Guardiola’s team a sense of unfamiliar foreboding, as well as celebrating the mining origins of a significant settlement in Gelsenkirchen during the mid-19th century. Either way, it did little to inspire the locals at first. At around 7.30pm on Saturday, Schalke could not see the light or even hear their canary.

“He has the makings of a survivor,” wrote Bild of Schalke’s coach Jens Keller on Monday morning and given the circumstances in which they prised a point out of Bayern, it is hard to disagree. For the first 45 minutes, the expected script was being followed rigidly, albeit with slightly different protagonists. Robert Lewandowski scored a first Bundesliga goal for his new club after just 10 minutes on his return to North Rhine-Westphalia – at the same venue that he had scored his first goal for Dortmund in the Revierderby back in September 2010. Meanwhile, the impromptu debutant Xabi Alonso (more of whom below) was running the match with alarming ease from a libero role, gliding across the turf like a strawberry-blond Beckenbauer.

It had always had the look of an uphill hike for Schalke. As well as Bayern being Bayern, they had won all of their last seven meetings with die Königblauen, and the last three by at least a four-goal margin. Since Manuel Neuer left Gelsenkirchen in 2011, he had not conceded once to a Schalke player – Rafinha (also a former Schalke player) scored an own goal past him in Bayern’s 5-1 win at the Allianz Arena in March, the only time he had needed to pick the ball out of the net against his old mates.

Perhaps even more germane to the situation was the fact that Schalke arrived at the weekend in terrible shape. Kevin-Prince Boateng and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar had joined an extensive injury list which already included Jefferson Farfan, Atsuto Uchida, the promising Leon Goretzka and Sead Kolasinac, who tore cruciate knee ligaments 15 minutes into the opener at Hannover.

So it was curious that another injury – this time to Jan Kirchhoff, on a two-year loan from Bayern and deployed in a defensive midfield position – was arguably the moment to give Keller and company a glimmer of daylight. Left chasing shadows by the effervescent Sebastian Rode and Xherdan Shaqiri, Kirchhoff and his double pivot partner Marco Höger were both booked inside the opening 20 minutes and subsequently walking a tightrope. Kirchhoff’s unplanned exit saw Roman Neustädter introduced, a specialist holder (albeit one whose scratchy performance at the HDI-Arena had seen him dropped to the bench), whose comparative composure allowed Höger the freedom to press further up the pitch and shift the pressure on to the visitors.

If that was the seed of recovery, one would assume that the interval was still blessed relief as Keller sought to regroup.

Whatever the coach said at the interval clearly did the trick; Schalke were hardly the Brazil of 1970 when they emerged for the second half, but there was real vigour about their efforts, epitomised by Eric Choupo-Moting, the essentially limited but highly willing forward moved into the centre in Huntelaar’s absence. It was fitting that his headed knockdown created the captain Benedikt Höwedes’ scruffy, unexpected, but ultimately deserved equaliser.

Yet the sense was that Keller was the main catalyst. Since taking over from the sacked Huub Stevens in December 2010, Keller has always carried the aura of being a semi-permanent caretaker, apparently lacking the requisite gravitas to carry the expectations of such a fervently and extensively supported club (incidentally, the home crowd still got behind their team with gusto, even when Schalke were having their backsides handed to them in the opening period).

Yet if you thought of Keller as a soft touch, think again. It was the climax of a tough week at the Veltins Arena, with successive defeats at third-tier Dynamo Dresden in the DfB Pokal, and then at Hannover. Furious with the way his team had let a lead slip in the opener, Keller cancelled their Monday off and got them in for extra training and a frank dressing-down. If the opening half of their performance against Bayern suggested an inferiority complex, it was clear their coach reminded them of exactly who they were representing at the break.

Julian Draxler, the 20-year-old youth product who is not just Schalke’s brightest hope but a player who positively embraces the considerable responsibility of playing for such a huge club, said as much post-match when he talked of his team showing “too much fear” in the first half. “We need to work on playing like [we did in the second half] right from the start,” said Draxler.

Even the nature of the equaliser could not dampen the mood; it was technically a Handtor that had Neuer rushing from his goal to remonstrate with the officials after conceding for the second week in a row, though there was nothing the inadvertent goalscorer Höwedes could do to avoid the ball as Alonso’s attempted clearance hit him at point-blank range.

No matter. In a week where considerable Champions League demands were marked on the calendar, with Chelsea, Sporting and Maribor popping out of Uefa’s hat for the group stages, Schalke finally suggested they have the stomach for the fight. Keller is certainly showing that he does, and that still waters run deep.

Talking points

Xabi Alonso has not moved as fast in years. Still saying his goodbyes in Madrid on Friday lunchtime, he was thrust into the bear pit of the Veltins Arena by Saturday afternoon. “From Xabi to Xaber in six days,” said Bild. On Tuesday, Alonso had been modelling El Real’s sleek new black away kit next to Iker Casillas and Gareth Bale, but by Sunday he was sipping a pint of Paulaner while wearing Bavarian lederhosen. It was well-earned; he excelled in the Sergio Busquets role, listed variously on team sheets as a defensive midfielder and a third centre-back (with the shifting shapes of his team, Guardiola continues to make life a misery for formation illustrators), he pulled the strings ably for 68 minutes before getting a breather. If some Bayern fans would have preferred a younger model – perhaps Augsburg’s outstanding Daniel Baier – Alonso is already winning hearts and minds.

Dortmund fans were camping outside the hospital where Shinji Kagawa was set to take his medical from Thursday, and Marco Reus let the cat out of the bag on Friday night. “I’m sure Shinji will … er, would help us,” stumbled Dortmund’s stand-in captain in the flash interview after the 3-2 win at Augsburg. Such is the joy at the Signal Iduna Park at the Japanese midfielder’s return that everyone is avoiding the thought that Kagawa’s return could pave the way for Reus’s eventual exit. Once the euphoria over Kagawa’s second coming (and snaring him for less than half the price that Manchester United paid two years ago) has subsided, Jürgen Klopp has some serious work to do to rebuild his player’s seemingly shattered confidence and make him a force again. If anyone can, Kloppo can.

He can’t have done it again, can he? After last week’s early contender for miss of the season at Bayern, Wolfsburg’s Junior Malanda was, improbably, fluffing his lines in the six-yard box again. With Dieter Hecking’s side drawing 2-2 with Eintracht Frankfurt, time running out and redemption looming for the Belgian midfielder, he ghosted on to Ricardo Rodriguez’s inviting cross, saw the goal gaping … and stumbled on the ball, sending it straight into the grateful arms of the goalkeeper Kevin Trapp. At least it was on target this time. Still, he might be best in the safety of the centre circle with his senior colleague Luiz Gustavo from now on.

The promoted pair of Paderborn and Köln both picked up their first wins of the Bundesliga season this weekend – and both remain unbeaten after two games. Köln have yet to concede a goal (despite electing not to start with on-loan Chelsea defender Tomas Kalas so far) and Paderborn would be joint-top with Bayer Leverkusen had they not conceded a 95th-minute equaliser to Mainz’s Shinji Okazaki on their home top-flight debut last week. For the fans of the pair they vanquished, underachieving giants Hamburg and Stuttgart, it was more of the same after torrid campaigns last year, though it was especially sweet for Paderborn’s manager, André Breitenreiter, who played for Hamburg for three seasons in the 90s.

Results: Augsburg 2-3 Dortmund, Werder 1-1 Hoffenheim, Bayer 4-2 Hertha, Wolfsburg 2-2 Eintracht, Stuttgart 0-2 Koln, Hamburg 0-3 Paderborn, Schalke 1-1 Bayern, Freiburg 0-0 Mönchengladbach, Mainz 0-0 Hannover.